TV’s Tarzan, Ron Ely, died on Oct. 23; he was 86. The rising young hunk had appeared in several movies and TV shows in the late 1950s-early ’60s (including a recurring role in The Aquanauts, and as Dobie’s older brother in the Dobie Gillis pilot. Stardom came with the 1966-68 Tarzan series, though the role also killed any chance of a follow-up career. Ely played Doc Savage in a 1975 movie, costarred in a Sea Hunt reboot, and did one-offs in several series. The tall, handsome Texas native dated his way through Hollywood starlets; tragedy struck him in 2019 when one of his sons killed Ron’s wife, former Miss Florida Valerie Lundeen, and was then killed by police. Ely said that Tarzan—his, anyway—was a dangerous character: “There were a few shows where the character got very angry, and I would become very destructive, and very violent, dangerous. We had to have those shows, I mean I couldn't have done the series without those shows because you have to show that side of the guy, of the character. You can’t always be ‘aw, be nice, little Jai, and you’ve got to be fair.’ You can’t do that. That gets boring and dull and it takes the balls right off the character.”
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